»I
don’t believe a word of what you say.«
My
supervisor shook his head. »This effect is minimal. How do you want to argue it
is relevant at all?«
I
stared at him in surprise. Couldn’t he see that my data were
significant, even if only marginally? Should all my efforts count for nothing?
Was he seriously suggesting that there was a flaw in my reasoning? Did I need
to reconsider my basic assumptions? Could it really be that my scientific investigations
led to a deceptive conclusion?
So I
went and pondered over my research. Research – what was I searching for?
Knowledge? Wisdom? Truth? Solutions to overcome our human weaknesses and
limitations? Fame? Recognition? Self-affirmation? Power? Progress?
Obviously
my current results could not satisfy my thirst for knowledge. In the end, it
didn’t matter if there were more excitatory than inhibitory neurons, which were
the names of the many proteins involved in the presynaptic machinery and what
fraction of brain connections could be called long-range rather than local.
Or
could these findings point to more important answers? Could they help us
understand who we are, why we can rightly assume that we are able to think
logically, why we strive to make sense of our lives and the universe we find
ourselves in?
After
all, science influences our perception. The more we learn about the incredible
dimensions of space, the more we fall silent in awe. The Earth – an isle
teeming with life – seems so infinitely insignificant. On the other hand, we
find similar orders of magnitude when we replace the telescope with the
microscope. So physical size may be the wrong indicator of relevance. Studying
biological systems at different scales has been a inexhaustible source of inspiration
for technical achievements – or should we call them imitations?
Smiling
again, I leaned back. Surely my investigations promised to remain interesting;
they might even reveal new secrets. At least they would have an impact on me.
And
hopefully my next findings would be convincing, so that others didn’t have to
believe in my results, but would only believe in the (well-founded) conclusions
they drew from them.
- F. Sägesser
